


Just The Same But Brand New

by coolangelsthesis



Category: DRAMAtical Murder
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Prison, Art Student AU, Artist & Muse, Doctor/Patient, Film Noir, Flirting, Fluff, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Mafia AU, Neighbors, Strippers & Strip Clubs, Teacher-Student Relationship, Waiters & Waitresses, flowershop, prompt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-05
Updated: 2015-07-20
Packaged: 2018-03-16 11:49:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3487196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coolangelsthesis/pseuds/coolangelsthesis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of three-sentence AU prompts (some longer) crossposted from Tumblr. Even in different universes, their lives cross paths-- as with destiny. Their relationship is just the same, but brand new.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Teacher & Student AU**

“ _Noiz_ , I don’t know what the hell is happening with you,” Aoba sighed, exhaustively tossing another failed assignment onto a pile scattered over his desk, looking up to meet an indifferent expression on his most irksome student, “Before I became a student teacher here, you had one of the highest GPA’s in the class, now you’re at the lowest.”

“Sorry, teacher, must have been distracted,” Noiz said while rocking back and forth on the back legs of his chair, eyes dancing over his teacher’s face—he was far too attractive to be teaching Biology 101—Intro to Biology was a simple, mundane class he had taken to satisfy his science credit; Noiz could do all the work with his eyes closed, before this nervous and fumbling student teacher introduced himself mid-semester.

Noiz stopped rocking in the chair and planted his hands down on his professor’s desk, leaning over until a couple inches separated them; he grabbed Aoba’s tie and jerked it forward, muttering a heated “Maybe I need some private tutoring” against Aoba’s lips before crushing his own against them.

* * *

**Doctor & Patient AU  
**

It wasn’t fair that Noiz had such an attractive nurse—that his scrubs were the color of his hair and the combination of the two was hideous yet alluring, and how he kept finding himself lost staring into eyes like honey as he changed out his IV, adjusted his pillows, and adjusted his bandages—that was the worst, as when his nurse (Aoba, as his nametag read) changed his bandages, he touched his bare skin.  
It wasn’t fair that other patients would have Aoba as their nurse and that Aoba would be treating other patients in the exact same way—he was going to change that.  
When he could hear Aoba’s voice in other hospital rooms, Noiz pressed the emergency button on his bed continuously over and over, until Aoba rushed in again, pale faced and worried; he received a scolding every time he did it, but still, every time he did it, Aoba came rushing in just as worried as he had been the time before—Noiz wondered if gullible people could count that as flirting.

* * *

**Noir AU  
**

“Look at that one over there,” Aoba said, taking a long drag from his cigarette, puffing out fumes of smoke while he tapped away the grey ashes into a shared ashtray with the man next to him—he nodded to a woman sitting on the opposite side of the bar, lips the same vivacious red as her dress, sipping languidly on a glass of champagne, “That’s your type, isn’t it?”

Noiz rolled his shoulders in a shrug, taking a long swig of whiskey with a sharp hiss; the two of them were weak and exhausted from a failed case slipping from underneath their fingertips, just barely skirting on the surface of conversation.  
“Not really, I think I have a different type,” he said, veering his attention away from the woman to Aoba, saying everything he had to in a smirk— he knew the blush budding on the beautiful man’s face wasn’t from the alcohol.

* * *

**Apartment Neighbors AU**

His neighbor was weird.

He stayed up until 4 AM most nights, playing old games that Aoba played when he was a teenager, neon green lights coming from his windows and from beneath the slit of his front door always led Aoba when Ren needed to use the restroom; and he ordered take-out constantly, it was almost weekly that a delivery man came to his apartment on accident because his neighbor gave them the wrong address.

This was one of those days—Aoba knocked furiously on his neighbor’s front door, rang repeatedly on his buzzer, until the front door swung open and a face filled to the brim with various pieces of metal and steely green eyes pierced him, took the cardboard pizza box from his hands, and closed it again without paying him back; yeah, his neighbor was weird, but damn was he _gorgeous_.

* * *

**Flowershop AU**

Noiz had never been one for flowers—they were reserved for couples who were going through rough patches that wanted some bullshit excuse to validate that their romance was still alive, or for the loss of a loved one; they were unnecessary, they were cumbersome, they were a nuisance.

But a month ago, Noiz noticed that the neighbors in his dingy apartment had left, and had been replaced with this guy who listened to crappy J-Pop a _bit_ too loudly for his liking, and liked to talk to his pet dog like he could speak back—he was the strangest guy he had ever met, and he wanted to know more about him.

With little to do, as the servers for most of his favorite online MMO’s were down for maintenance, he decided to follow his neighbor to his job to see what sort of a job someone like him could hold; he stood inside the threshold of this bright and colorful flowershop as he watched his neighbor working, pouring water onto a bed of tulips, oblivious to Noiz’s presence—as he watched his neighbor humming to himself, smiling peacefully as he straightened the bouquets on display on the front counter, Noiz thought to himself, _maybe I could get used to flowers._

* * *

**Artist & Muse AU**

“Turn around a little,” a husky voice asked, and Aoba obliged; the thin white fabric wrapped around his lower half and thrown along the rest of the chair slipped down slightly, exposing a larger sliver of his stomach—the voice said that it was fine before Aoba had the chance to unfreeze himself to fix it.  
Rain pattered against the tall glass windows behind him, distorting the flickering yellow and red lights of citylife below, making golden flecks of light dance along his skin.  
Aoba drew in a large breath and straightened out his back, upturned his chin so the light hit the contours of his face at just the right angle, stared out into the studio and a pair of icy green eyes stared right back, startling him at first; but quickly, something in the iciness calmed his frayed nerves, brought him comfort as this man – who called himself Noiz (what a strange name, Aoba thought) – began to move his hands like they were controlled by puppet strings, recreating the lines of Aoba’s body onto his canvas.

* * *

  **Stripper AU**

Aoba’s hands clenched and unclenched nervously at his sides. He squirmed and the leather of the chair he was sat in groaned in protest.  
He had made another dumb decision in a night of continuous dumb decisions. Koujaku and Mizuki had already gotten him thoroughly drunk at Black Needle before they all collectively agreed to celebrate the rest of Aoba’s birthday elsewhere, in an upscale stripper bar in the red-light district, known infamously as Rhyme.  
In the middle of the main show, where a large busted woman teased the throng of men on the largest stage of this booming bar, Aoba’s eyes peeled away from the stage over to a smaller area reserved for mostly for female or gay crowds.  
At the sight he saw, Aoba’s throat immediately constricted and he burned with desire. The most beautiful person he had ever seen was up on stage, half naked and garish in a black-and-green getup.  
Aoba excused himself away from his friends with the half-assed excuse of getting another round to drink.

“I want him. It’s my birthday, I want him,” Aoba slurred over and over until someone working in the club caught word of him. He was told that he could receive a strip tease from the performers—for a price. Aoba didn’t care, he would have paid whatever it would have cost to get closer to the blond haired Adonis working on that pole.

But now he didn’t know what the fuck he was doing. He wanted to back away but he couldn’t, he had already paid for an hour upfront and he didn’t want the preposterous amount of money he had spent go to waste. If anything, could at least satiate the strain on the front of jeans with the amount of money he had singlehandedly blown.

Aoba heard the drumming bass of the music on stage dip at the end of a song, and he heard roaring cheers. A couple of moments later he heard the sharp click of heels growing closer and closer. Then the black velvet curtain just inches from his face was pulled back.

There he was—the beautiful strawberry blond again. Aoba couldn’t tell when he was up on stage, but he was adorned with a bunch of various painful looking piercings. His chest was bare and exposed several other piercings over his lithe body. The man’s lower half was barely concealed by a green thong adorned with something like rabbit patterns, black fishnets, and neon green heels. Aoba tried as hard as possible not to stop and stare at him, but in the claustrophobic air, it was all but impossible.

“Hello there, birthday boy,” the man said. His voice was husky and inviting. He stepped closer, drawing the curtain closed once again. He rested his hands on his hips—Aoba noticing that the light caught on another bead of silver against his exposed hipbones. He clicked his tongue as he looked over Aoba’s haggard appearance— he was clearly wasted beyond belief, but he wasn’t bad looking, either. If they were in different circumstances, he could have been captivating. He was too rigid, too. Probably scared beyond belief.  
“So, what can I call you?” the man asked.  
“Aoba,” Aoba said weakly.  
“Well, Aoba. You can call me Noiz.”

Noiz stepped closer and gripped the back of the leather chair, pinning Aoba in place. In the closer view, Aoba could tell that his eyes were liked with kohl… and they were the loveliest, sharpest shade of green he had ever seen.  
“It’s nice to meet you, Noiz,” Aoba slurred, not entirely knowing what he was saying to begin with. Noiz chuckled.  
“Just do me a favor and enjoy your birthday gift, alright? And try not to make a mess.”

Noiz’s smirk grew into a grin. Suddenly Aoba wasn’t regretting his decision any more.


	2. Chapter 2

**Long-Distance Relationship AU - Part 1**

Aoba didn’t expect much out of online games he played during his free time; at most, they were just a convenient way for him to unwind from work as he settled into bed.  
He didn’t expect to find any significant relationships with any other players… that is, until someone named Noiz continually kept following his character around no matter where he went, and they naturally starting getting closer.  
And after several months of chatting back and forth, working together to finish quests, and defeating enemies together, he was waiting in front of the airport terminal, just about to meet this person face to face—what would Noiz look like in real life, he wondered… _and why was his heart starting to beat faster when he thought about him_?

**Long-Distance Relationship AU - Part 2  
**

Noiz was just like he imagined him to be. He was intelligent, if not a bit quiet and reserved. But he spoke honestly, and when Aoba listened to him talk he could tell he was genuinely amused. His Japanese was surprisingly good for someone raised overseas; he could hardly hear a trace of an accent.  
Even in the expanse of a couple minutes, an odd sense of comfort began to grow between them. He’d imagined that seeing Noiz face-to-face, not in between grainy video calls, would be awkward at first, but it was just like they had been conversing online. They had known each other for years, now. And it showed.

And yet, Aoba couldn’t stop the nervous pattering of his heart when Noiz moved in a bit too close, when he caught the faintest scent of his cologne. When Noiz accidentally muttered something in German instead of Japanese, his hands broke out into a nervous sweat and he could hear his heart pounding loudly behind his eardrums.  
_Why am I feeling like this,_ he asked himself… and was it so obvious that Noiz could sense it, too?  
Did he feel the same way?

They had dinner at a fast food restaurant on their way back from the airport— for some reason, Noiz said he wanted to try the different restaurants that they had in Germany and see if they were better or worse. _What a strange kid_.

The restaurant was vacant besides them and the teenagers working behind the counter, minding them no attention as they went about their daily jobs. Aoba picked at his fries slowly, more interested in watching Noiz eat then his own food. He was fascinating— his eyes were a sharp green that Aoba had never seen before, his fringe fell into his face but it never seemed to cause him any disdain.  
Out of his daze, Aoba said out loud:

“Is it hard to eat with your tongue piercings?”  
Noiz glanced up from his burger and narrowed his thin eyebrows.  
“No, not really,” he said, shrugging. “It’s not much harder than not eating with it. Why?”  
“Just… wondering.”

Aoba picked up another fry and nibbled at it, letting the conversation drop as Noiz continued to eat.  
He had thought that maybe he had asked a wrong question, that the nervous feeling collecting in his stomach was because he had made things too awkward. Had he said the wrong thing? Made Noiz uncomfortable or awkward in some way? He _did_ have his perplexed look on his face, and Aoba was certain it wasn’t because of the food he was eating.  
Inside these thoughts racing through Aoba’s head, he heard a soft sigh from across the table.

“By the way, Aoba…”  
Noiz sat up a little and leaned over the table. He was so close now and Aoba felt a flush rise to his cheeks and heard his heart beating so fast, so fast that it could burst out of his chest and…  
“Sorry if this is too sudden, or if you don’t like this, but I’ve thought about doing this for months.”  
“W-What?” Aoba whispered.

Noiz smiled at him softly and inched closer.  
Aoba felt something soft and warm against his lips; caught in between believing his mind was playing tricks on him and shocked by the fact that _Noiz was kissing him_ , Aoba remained frozen stiff.

And before he realized it, Noiz broke apart and sat back down.

The first thing he felt was heat—pure, hot heat collecting into a whirlwind of embarrassment and confusion. At once, he wanted to curl up inside himself, wanted to flee, and wanted _that_ to continue on even further.  
Instead, he bit down on his lower lip and narrowed his eyes at Noiz.

“That’s… that’s not normal here!” he hissed. “K-Kissing like that, s-so suddenly…”  
Noiz frowned. “So that was not good, then?”  
“No, it was… I just… I…”

Aoba exhaled sharply, trying to clear his thoughts from his flustered state.  
“We’re in public… p-people could have been staring.”  
Noiz clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “Ah, I forgot. Different cultures, sorry.”

He paused, and smirked. “But… didn’t you just say it was good? So you must have liked it.”  
“T-That’s not… I…”

Dammit. He wasn’t any different face-to-face than he was online—always cornering Aoba and noticing small details that he didn’t even realize he had said.  
He would be mad, but he had realized that that was just Noiz being Noiz.

He sighed softly and cupped his face in his hands, a vain attempt to disguise the red blossoming on his cheeks.  
“It’s not like… I didn’t like it,” he muttered under his breath. “J-Just don’t do it so suddenly. A-And… I’ve thought about doing that for a while, t-too…”

“ _Oh_?” The way Noiz said it sounded more like a gasp of surprise. Aoba nodded once and glanced at him out of the corner of his eye; the same blush he had on his face was starting to show on Noiz’s.

Perhaps they were closer than friends; perhaps it had been that way longer than the couple of hours they had spent seeing each other face to face.  
Perhaps… they would get even closer, now that nothing was stopping them from being together.

**Prison AU**

After having his long hair buzzed off and after being forced into a baggy, orange jumpsuit, Aoba was led— and unceremoniously tossed— into a dingy cell. The walls and furniture were covered in grime, rust, blood, and another assortment of bodily fluids.  
The sight made Aoba’s stomach churn and nausea creep the way up his throat.

“Stop, please!” he howled, shaking the cell’s barred door frantically to get the attention of the police officer walking away. “I don’t belong here! _You have the wrong person_!”

He continued to shout, kick, and scream, but in vain.  
“Shut your fuckin’ mouth!” one person across the rows of cells shouted. “Nobody cares about you now.”  
Other inmates started shouting, as well, but they melded into a wall of static noise.

Trying to flee was helpless, Aoba figured. He sank to the ground as reality set in— _this was his home now_.

He was too busy lost in his own grief that he didn’t hear the bedsprings sigh on one of the beds inside the cell. He only noticed he wasn’t alone when he felt a cold hand resting on his shoulder; Aoba jumped and stared up, meeting a stare cold and malicious.  
After the initial wave of shock wore off, Aoba got a closer look at this man—his skin was fetid white, like he hadn’t seen the light of day in months. His hair was cropped short and his face was covered with piercings… even on his hands. The only spec of color were his hollowed out eyes, the piercing green threatening to kill him if this man’s hands wouldn’t first.

“Seragaki Aoba, correct?” the man asked, pulling Aoba off of his feet so they were eye to eye.  
Afraid of making any wrong move, Aoba nodded. The man sighed.  
“So, they finally caught you,” he said to himself, shaking his head. “Took them long enough. But you can’t count on the police force to do much, anyway. Am I right?”

Aoba weakly laughed along, but stopped short when the man’s eyes were on him again.  
“Your hair’s all gone, what a shame.” The hand on his shoulder moved upwards, petting the now-bare parts of his scalp. The sensation—and the faint shock of pain—made Aoba shudder.

The man smirked. “People will want to have you dead out here, after what you did to help Toue. You’ll need protection. We can work together, or I can be the first one to put a mark on you. Your choice.”  
The fear that had subsided somewhat recollected himself; Aoba swallowed down a hard lump in the back of his throat.  
“W-What is your name?” he whispered, wincing as this man’s face loomed in closer and closer.  
“Noiz. So, what do you say? Want to work together?”

 _What choice do I have?_ Aoba thought. Death was waiting for him at every corner, and if this man was offering him protection, he should at least take it when he can.  
He closed his eyes and sighed. “F-Fine.”

He then felt something soft on his lips, he felt a sharp tinge of pain on his side, then his vision faded to black.

*

He awoke slowly, like a cold wave crashed over his face over and over, gently lulling him awake.  
The first thing that Aoba noticed was that he was not in that same room he was in with that weird-looking man.  
He was somewhere else, lying on his back on a hard mattress, staring up at off-white designs on the ceiling.

His side felt like it was on _fire_ , like someone had ignited a torch and let it sit too close to his skin. But try as he might to move, he couldn’t—he felt numb everywhere else.

He felt helpless, unsure, and lost; but he knew there was nothing he could do. He fell back into sleep, letting the waves pull him deeper and deeper under.

*

“Aoba.”

There was something gripping his arm, shaking him gently. He brushed them off and groaned.  
“No…”

Then a harsh sigh, the gentle ruse over and gone. “ _Aoba_.”

Aoba jerked awake thanks to the sharp, burning pain on his side. In his sleep he forgot the nagging feeling, but this person urging him awake ruptured whatever was causing him pain. He cried out in pain and doubled over, protectively wrapping his hands around his side.

“Who…”

His vision was blurry from the ache of the pain, but he mustered the strength to look up to see—it was that man again… _Noiz_.  
The pain faded into pure rage; he shot up in bed, but regretted the decision immediately, slumping back down. He shot the man daggers with his eyes instead of using his fists.

“You… what did you do to me!” he hissed.  
“I helped you,” Noiz replied calmly, taking a seat on the side of his bed.

“Bullshit! Where are we?”  
“The infirmary. They stitched up your side, and fixed this.”  
Noiz rolled up his sleeve, revealing his lower arm wrapped in gauze. There was a faint, red mark staining the white, indicating a long, deep gash sheathed underneath.

“W-Why did you—”  
Noiz cut him off. “Stab you? Stab me? It’s simple, really. All the inmates here are being shipped off to another facility soon. But if we’re in the hospital ward, we won’t be. Which means, when a new batch of inmates arrive, they won’t know who you are… until your hair grows back, probably. Getting stabbed wasn’t fun, I know, but we’ll be able to have more control in the future.”

… Aoba couldn’t understand Noiz’s reasoning at all, but he figured that this guy must be used to living like this. He knew how to survive in this sort of world. If he wanted to live, he needed to learn how to adjust.  
He went still in reverence, then spoke up again as a thought rushed back to him.

“Then why did you…” Aoba slowly lifted his hand up to his mouth; he touched his lower lip with his hand.

“Because I wanted to.” Noiz smirked. I bet not a lot of people get to kiss someone designed to crush people’s brains to bits.”  
“I’m… not going to use that power here.”

Aoba curled up in bed, staring out of the barred window. “Never again…”

An awkward silence radiated throughout the room as Aoba mulled over old memories, old images ingrained in his head he could never erase.  
Then the bed shifted and Noiz leaned over him.

“I have a question for you.”  
Aoba sat up a little, staring at him expectantly.  
“Did you like it?”  
“Like what?” he asked, brows knitting together in confusion.

“What I did.” Noiz brushed his finger along his own lip and smirked. “ _That_.”

“I…” Aoba felt his cheeks burning red. He turned away, wrapping the sheets tight around him again. “I couldn’t remember. I passed out just after you did.”  
“I could show you again.”

Aoba sighed with annoyance and forced his eyes shut, filtering out Noiz’s voice.  
He could tell that this guy was going to be more than a literal pain in his side from now on.

**Mafia AU**

Trying to act like they hated each other was easier than they thought it to be—in a way, they did hate each other… and that hatred is what made their relationship even stronger, lured one another closer like moths to a dangerous flame.  
They both knew the repercussions meeting in the dark of night could have, how they would be scorned and barred for life by making themselves weak to their rivals.  
But Noiz couldn’t help himself… nor could Aoba.

The latter of the two especially; Noiz was reckless, always found himself in the middle of turmoil, be it shootouts or run-ins with authorities. Aoba swore whenever he saw his bare body, there were new scars and bruises that hadn’t been there just days ago.  
It was hard keeping a track on Noiz most of the time, because acting too interested in him could reveal the true nature of their relationship. That meant when Noiz injured himself and wound up in a hospital, he couldn’t stay for any longer than a couple minutes at a time.

He needed to make those minutes count.

“When are you going to learn your lesson not to jump from two story buildings?” Aoba sighed as he sat on the edge of Noiz’s hospital bed.  
“When I’m dead, probably,” the other replied, in deadpan. He turned his head to the side to get a good look at Aoba; his left eye was covered in thick gauze, and his right arm was in a plaster cast. Aoba had seen him in worse conditions, but he was undeniably in a bout of pain now.

“Be more careful, okay?” Aoba whispered gently, but firmly. “I don’t want to lose you.”  
“Same goes for you. If I ever stumble upon your body in the gutter somewhere—”  
“Th-There’s no need to think about that, okay? I’m going to stay safe.”

Aoba leaned forward and kissed Noiz on the corner of his lip, resting his forehead against Noiz’s as he closed his eyes.  
_“I promise.”_  
Noiz sighed and closed his eyes, too. “Good.”

**Art Student AU**

“Noiz,” Aoba sighed, clutching the thick towel around his waist even tighter. He tried, though in vain, to cover up the rest of his naked body with his arms. “A-Are you sure about this?”  
Somehow the two of them had started to talk sometime between the boring art classes they simultaneously attended; for their upcoming assignment, they had to use a real life model to base their rough sketches on.  
Their professor didn’t specify any more than that, so Noiz used his own creativity— to finally have a reason to talk to the blue haired boy who kept staring at him during lectures.  
He nodded and stepped behind his easel, brushing away the thin pieces of wood leftover from sharpening his pencil. “Of course, no need to be worried… we’re both guys. Now, drop the towel.”

**Waitor/Customer AU**

He had the steps memorized, knew them like the back of his hand; he repeated them to himself over and over in his head— _Hello, welcome to Café Heibon, my name is Aoba and I’ll be your server, can I get you started with anything to drink?_  
He _knew_ them, and was prepared to repeat them hour after hour as he started his first day working… but when his first customer, a sophisticated-looking young man, with eyes that were the most stunning shade of green he had ever seen, he forgot every single word he had memorized and stammered. 

“I-I’m so sorry, I just—” Aoba began, but was too flustered to continue any further. The man smiled up at him, which only further encapsulated him into this man’s stare.  
“Don’t be so nervous, I won’t bite,” the man said. A humored look danced in his eyes. “ _Much_.”

**(Adopted) Sibling AU**

Aoba rushed down the stairs as soon as he heard the front door open and heard the sound of his parent’s voices. They told him that morning that they had something in store had been waiting for them all day with anticipation and excitement.  
“Ah, Aoba!” his mother said, beckoning the lively eight-year old boy towards her. “We have someone for you to meet!”  
“Ohh! Who?” Aoba grinned wide, eyes searching back and forth between his parent’s faces. “Who is it? Tell me!” 

Nain chuckled and gently ruffled up his son’s hair, being careful not to cause him any pain.  
“Say hello to your new brother.” 

He stepped to the side to reveal a young boy, no more than four years old. The first thing Aoba noticed were his knees, a garish shade of red scarcely concealed by band-aids. He was fidgety and nervous and kept his eyes rooted on the ground, with one hand clutched tight onto Nain’s.  
Cautiously this boy lifted his gaze towards Aoba, catching the older one off guard with how sharp his bright gaze was.

Beneath that, Aoba could tell this young kid was afraid; he didn’t want to make him more nervous than he already was.  
He took slow steps closer to the young boy and held out his hand as an invitation of greeting. 

“Hello, I’m Aoba,” he said, giving him an empathetic smile. “I’ll be a good big brother!”  
“Noiz,” the young boy said weakly after a long, uncomfortable silence. He slipped his hand into Aoba’s and shook it weakly. “Y-You can call me Noiz.”  
Then, after another long pause, he gave the faintest ghost of a smile. “Hello, Aoba.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PS namesake for this AU drabble thing comes from [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6DEuYshML0). I'm not that creative lmao

**Author's Note:**

> I have a feeling that a couple of these will be expanded sometime in the future... after I get some big fics out of the way...


End file.
